Peter Duncan Fraser Lord

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born 4 November 1953) is a British animator, director, producer and co-founder of the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-winning

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring

plasticine Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...

duo Wallace & Gromit. He also directed ''

Chicken Run ''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 animated adventure comedy film directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park and written by Karey Kirkpatrick from an original story by Lord and Park. Produced by Pathé and Aardman Features in partnership with DreamWork ...

'' along with

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

from

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

, and '' The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!'' from

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

and

Sony Pictures Animation Sony Pictures Animation Inc. (also referred to as Sony Animation Studios and abbreviated to SPA) is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and found ...

which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards. Lord is the producer/executive producer of every Aardman work, including ''Chicken Run'', ''

Arthur Christmas ''Arthur Christmas'' is a 2011 animated Christmas comedy film directed by Sarah Smith who co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Baynham, and starring the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, and Ashley ...

'' and ''

Flushed Away ''Flushed Away'' is a 2006 animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features. The film was directed by Sam Fell and David Bowers, from a screenplay by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keen ...

.''

Life and career

Lord was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England. In co-operation with David Sproxton, a friend of his youth at school together in

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

in the 1960s, he realised his dream of "making and taking an animated movie". He graduated in English from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in 1976. He and Sproxton founded ''Aardman'' as a low-budget backyard studio, producing

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ar ...

and trailers for publicity. Their work was first shown as part of the BBC TV series '' Vision On''. In 1977 they created Morph, a stop-motion animated character made of Plasticine, who was usually a comic foil to the TV presenter

Tony Hart Norman Antony Hart (15 October 1925 – 18 January 2009)Debrett's People of Today 2008, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2007. was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role as a children's television present ...

. With his amoral friend Chas, he appeared in a series of children's art programmes including ''Take Hart'', ''Hartbeat'' and ''Smart''. From 1980 to 1981, Morph appeared in his own TV series '' The Amazing Adventures of Morph''. Experiments with animated clay characters synchronised with 'live' recorded soundtracks led to a series of films in the style of animated documentary. The first two were part of the BBC TV series ''

Animated Conversations Animated Conversations is a series of short animated films, two of which were made by Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known f ...

'' and were called "Down and Out" (1977) and " Confessions of a Foyer Girl" (1978) . These were followed in 1983 by '' Conversation Pieces'', a series of five-minute long films produced for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. They were called "On Probation", ''

Sales Pitch As a selling technique, a sales presentation or sales pitch is a line of talk that attempts to persuade someone or something, with a planned sales presentation strategy of a product or service designed to initiate and close a sale of the produc ...

'', " Palmy Days", "Late Edition" and "Early Bird". In 1985

joined the group. Lord, Park and Sproxton developed and finalised their style of detailed and lovingly designed

clay animation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

characters from stop motion techniques (though directed by Stephen Johnson their claymation is shown in the music video "Sledgehammer" (1986) by

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

). In 1991 Lord animated ''Adam'', a 6-minute clay animation that was nominated for an

. Park created the "odd-couple" Wallace & Gromit-shorts in co-operation with Lord and Sproxton. All three together worked as producers, editors and directors. Other awarded productions by Peter Lord are ''

'' (2000), the first feature film from Aardman and the Academy Award-winning '' Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'' (2005). In 2006, Lord, Sproxton and Park were all given "the Freedom of the City of Bristol". In that same year, Lord (along with Sproxton) visited the "Aardman Exhibit" at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, where he met

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

. Miyazaki has long been a fan of the Aardman Animation works. In 2013 Lord was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards for '' The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!'' (2012). Lord was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) on 17 June 2006. On 9 July 2015, Lord received a Gold Blue Peter badge. In August 2016, Lord was appointed a visiting professorship at Volda University College. Three of Lord's films–''War Story'', ''Adam'', and ''Wat's Pig''–have been preserved by the Academy Film Archive. In 2021, he was featured in the film ''Cartoon Carnival'', a documentary about the origins of animation.“Cartoon Carnival” and Fleischer Tribute on TCM Saturday Oct. 2nd
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Filmography

Feature films

TV series

Shorts

Books

* Peter Lord & Brian Sibley: ''Cracking Animation'' (1998) Thames & Hudson;

References

External links

*
Peter Lord
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Q&A With Peter Lord about The Pirates! Band of Misfits
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, Peter 1953 births Living people Aardman Animations people DreamWorks Animation people Sony Pictures Animation people Alumni of the University of York Animation screenwriters British animated film directors British animated film producers British animators British film directors British film producers British male screenwriters British television directors British television producers British television writers Clay animators Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English animators English film directors English film producers English male screenwriters English screenwriters English television directors English television producers English television writers Film people from Bristol Stop motion animators